Good evening,
The cattle are keeping dry indoors, the cider is happily bubbling away and our wheat is tillering nicely. Things have been moving fairly slowly at Trenchmore for the past few weeks, which has given us a little more time for reflection, learning and tea. Lots of tea.
One of the topics that keeps cropping up when looking at the work of regenerative farmers across Europe and the US is diversity. We are pleased to see the word being recognised more across various social and political contexts too, but listening to one of our farming heroes Gabe Brown and one of our food heroes Tim Spector connect the diversity in the soils to the diversity in our guts really brought home its value to us as food producers.
Tim Spector’s research into the microbiome (the huge community of microbes residing in our bodies, especially in the gut) has shown that the more diverse the food and nutrients we put in, the healthier the microbes are. The healthier the microbes, the more resilient the microbiome and the less likely we are to develop mental and physical health problems.
This research mirrors what we are learning about soil health. The more diverse the plants we grow, the happier the microbes will be. Crop rotation and a mixed cocktail of cover crops means the soil will have different root lengths and constant ground cover. This delicious range of plants not only support greater ecosystems above ground, but also pull carbon out of the atmosphere to feed to the microorganisms through their various root lengths. As payment for the carbon, the microorganisms give nutrients to the plant so they can grow bigger and stronger, which enables more carbon to be fed down. A symbiotic relationship that benefits both plant and soil.
The healthier the soil, the more nutrients in the plant. The more nutrients in the plant, the healthier the food we put into our bodies, and the happier our gut microbiomes.
It is beautifully simple and yet incredibly complex.
Without getting bogged down by the science, the positive take away in what we’re learning about our own health and the health of our land is that they are completely complimentary. As nature cleverly designed it, it works well to achieve both together.
So, with this in mind our aim is to continue increasing the diversity of our soils, and also bring more diversity to our offering. We have some exciting projects in the pipeline, but for now we have Sussex Wagyu beef, Nuthurst Lamb boxes & Shrub Provisions veg boxes available to order.
The Sussex Wagyu is being butchered next week so will be fresh and ready to collect on Saturday 13th Feb, just in time for cooking something a little special for Sunday 14th.
There are also a couple of lamb boxes available to order and collect this Saturday. There are more due around 20th Feb and these are now available to pre-order. The date may change subject to the butcher's schedule but we will keep you posted.
And the veg boxes are here each and every week, with their contents changing with the seasons.
We are going to be keeping our online shop open moving forward and would love to hear your feedback. If there’s anything you’d like to see more of, please let us know.
Moo love x
